Looking at Othello as a Tragic Hero
"Killing myself, to die upon a kiss."
Othello's death brings a sense of justice to the play, one of the main
forms and conventions of a tragedy. But if 'Othello' is a tragedy then
Othello must be a tragic hero.
Traditionally a tragedy follows the downfall of an individual who is
usually high up in society (such as a king). This downfall is
triggered by a fatal flaw in the tragic hero's character. During the
play the audience must have many different feelings towards the hero,
from respect to anger and maybe even pity. These may also turn to
terror, as people close to the hero are hurt. Fate is seen to be
predetermined and ensures that justice is seen to be done, which
always means the death of the hero. Before the tragic hero dies they
will learn the truth of their situation and make some attempt to amend
the wrongs committed.
These forms and conventions were first chartered by Aristotle and were
always used by him and other writers in tragedies. Shakespeare however
did not always stick to these conventions and would often change them
to suit his literary needs.
In this essay I will chart the development of Othello's character, to
establish whether or not Othello is a tragic hero.
Probably the most important rule of being a tragic hero is that the
person concerned is of noble birth so that their downfall is as
dramatic as possible.
At the beginning of the play neither Roderigo nor Iago seemed to look
upon Othello as a noble person. It seems that Iago is only pretending
to be loyal to him, he says "In following him, I follow but myself".
This suggests that his loyalty to Othe...
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...the first and probably most
noticeable is that he is black. Othello was the first main character
in any of Shakespeare's plays who was black and this would have seemed
extremely unusual to the Elizabethan audience at the time. Also he was
only a noble man, before this tragic heroes had always been kings.
From this we can conclude that Othello is a tragic hero, but what if
Shakespeare had not intended Othello to the tragic hero? We have
already seen how he breaks the rules to suit his needs. Shakespeare
could have intended someone else to be the hero, Desdemona for
example. Daughter of a Venetian senator, leaving her father for
Othello could have been what killed him and her faithful dying words
to Emilia and her husband mean she dies an honourable woman. She fills
just as many of the forms and conventions as Othello.
Northrop Frye once said, “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” Othello is the pillar of tragic heros, first playing the part of a loving husband with a beautiful wife, then being manipulated into believing his wife was cheating on him and killing her. Throughout the play, he played the part of the protagonist, everyone hoping he would figure out Iago was lying to him. Othello being the protagonist made the fact he was also a villain bittersweet. His apparent love for his wife Desdemona, his ‘just’ reasoning for killing her, and Iago’s deserving end all contribute to the tragic work as a whole.
Othello as A Tragedy of Outsiders The most obvious way of being an outsider in Othello is through being a foreigner, and a non-Venetian. Othello and Cassio are both outsiders in this sense, Othello is a black man, a "Moor", and Cassio is a "Florentine". Othello begins in Venice, in Shakespeare's time the great commercial centre of the western world. Venice was the place of great hustle and bustle, merchants and tradesmen from other lands were commonplace, and yet we see throughout the play how Othello and Cassio are ridiculed. Cassio is degraded as he is from Florence; Iago calls him "a great arithmetician".
The embarkation of the hero’s journey is more than a call, it is taking control of your life and discovering the hero who dwells inside you. Each hero who enters the journey is tested to the very end of the cycle, where the hero must choose rebirth or death. Othello is man of many fortunes, but he does not have what it takes to complete the Hero’s Journey.
Most readers are aware of the many famous deaths or acts of death within the Shakespearean plays. And when the main characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, indeed, the readers would categorize the play as a tragedy. The problem with any tragedy definition is that most tragic plays do not define the tragedy conditions explained or outlined by Aristotle. According to Telford (1961), a tragedy is a literary work that describes the downfall of an honorable, main character who is involved on historically or socially significant events. The main character, or tragic hero, has a tragic fault, the quality that leads to his or her own destruction. In reading Aristotle’s point of view, a tragedy play is when the main character(s) are under enormous pressure and are incapable to see the dignities in human life, which Aristotle’s ideas of tragedy is based on Oedipus the King. Shakespeare had a different view of tragedy. In fact, Shakespeare believed tragedy is when the hero is simply and solely destroyed. Golden (1984) argued the structure of Shakespearean tragedy would be that individual characters revolved around some pain and misery.
How Othello Follows the Rules of Tragedy Tragedy is not just simply one sad event, in ancient Greek plays and in Shakespeare's tragedies it usually follows a number of common ingredients or rules. Firstly it involves a conspicuous or exceptional personality. For example in the occurrence of Princess Diana's death she was the exceptional character. She was a woman who had done an astonishing amount of work for charities and a Princess. The second rule of tragedy is that it must be unexpected and constructed with previous happiness or glory.
The first rule that is met in Shakespeare’s play is that Othello is considered tragic hero, which every tragedy must contain. According to Aristotle, the tragic hero must be a man in a position of power who is a good person and makes a mistake during the timeline of the play due to a tragic flaw. Othello’s major flaw can be seen as jealousy: “Othello has often been described as a tragedy of character, as the play’s protagonist swiftly descends into a rage of jealousy
Texts and their appropriations reflect the context and values of their times. Within Shakespeare’s Othello and Geoffrey Sax’s appropriation of Othello, the evolution of the attitudes held by Elizabethan audiences and those held by contemporary audiences can be seen through the context of the female coupled with the context of racism. The role of the female has developed from being submissive and “obedient” in the Elizabethan era to being independent and liberated within the contemporary setting. The racism of the first text is overtly xenophobic and natural, whilst the “moor” is unnatural whereas the updated context portrays Othello’s race as natural and racism as unnatural. Therefore these examples show how Shakespeare’s Othello, and it’s appropriation, Geoffrey sax’s Othello, reflect the context and values of their times.
Tragedy is an intrinsically human concept; tragic heroes are damned by what they themselves do. Othello is not so much felled by the actions of Iago, but by a quality all people possess-- human frailty. Accordingly, Othello is not a victim of consequences, but an active participant in his downfall. He is not merely a vehicle for the machinations of Iago; he had free agency. Othello's deficiencies are: an insecure grasp of Venetian social values; lack of critical intelligence, self-knowledge, and faith in his wife; and finally, insecurity-- these are the qualities that lead to his own downfall.
The Tragedy of Othello William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, from the sixteenth century is an excellent example of Renaissance humanism. “A poet of unparalleled genius, Shakespeare emerged during the golden age of England under the rule of Elizabeth I.”(Fiero 3:98) He produced comedies, tragedies, romances and histories. According to Webster’s pocket dictionary, a tragedy is defined as a form of drama in which the protagonist comes to a disaster, as through a flaw in character, and in which the ending is usually marked by pity or sorrow. I would like to concentrate on the character Iago and the theme of deceit.
Othello is a classic Greek tragedy because it abides by Aristotle's definition of great tragedies, the place, time, and focus of a single plot throughout the entirety of the play. Othello is a tragic hero whose demise is brought forth by his own tragic flaw. He is susceptible to the manipulation of others do to his own insecurity with himself, and ultimately leads to his irrational murder of the only thing he treasured, Desdemona. Through manipulation and deception, Iago is able to become the puppeteer of Othello's life, controlling the course of his fate in a sense simply through the power of words. Iago proves to be a crucial factor in the destruction of Othello's world.
Hamlet. Romeo. Othello. These men not only star in some of Shakespeare’s finest plays, but they are all classic examples of tragic heroes. A tragic hero is one who is courageous and admired but who has a tragic flaw that leads to his downfall. Othello was one of the greatest military men of the time. He was highly respected among his superiors for both his military prowess and level headed nature. This was a man who could be in the heat of a battle and would remain collected. Though this great hero also had great shortcomings. Othello was naive, jealous, and concerned with public appearance. Othello is truly a dynamic character. As the play continues and his jealous increases, Othello gradually changes from a flawless military general into
Of Shakespeare’s five greatest tragedies, Othello is by far the most passionate and gripping. It is a tale of love, deception, evil, honesty, and virtue. Othello himself is set apart from other Shakespearean tragic heroes by the absolute feeling of affection the audience feels for him even unto the very end of the play. Any discerning reader painfully recognizes the virtue and goodness of Othello throughout the entire play, in contrast to the general degeneration of character so typical of a tragic hero. It is this complete pity that makes the death of Othello so tragic as the audience lends their full hopeful support until the inevitable and unavoidable fall. The evil side of Othello’s tragic flaw came from without, in the form of Iago. The internal flaw exists only in his heartrendingly unshakable goodness and honor.
Mrs. Cornwall ENG3U1 October 14 2015 A Tragic Hero’s’ Path Towards His Downfall In society there are always people who are easily manipulated and possess poor judgment. This leads them to make wrong decisions and negatively affect their lives and the lives of the people around them. The reason for Othello’s tragic downfall was because of his poor judgement, his easily manipulated conscience and his jealousy and obsession with the world. These traits displayed why Othello was responsible for the play’s tragic outcome. The first trait that led to Othello’s downfall was his easily manipulated conscience.
William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello boasts quite a little list of abnormalities in both occurrences and personal behavior.
Before the twentieth century plays were mainly written as either a tragedy or comedy. In a tragic play the tragic hero will often do something that will eventually destroy him. In the book Oedipus the King, Oedipus is the tragic hero. In this tragic play the main character, which is portrayed as Oedipus, will do a good deed that will in turn make him a hero. This hero will reach his height of pride in the story, and in the end the action, which he had committed earlier, will return and destroy this man who was once called a hero.